Take 30: Malachy McCourt to hold court Friday in Fredonia, N.Y.

With St. Patrick's Day just around the corner, it'll be good to mark the occasion with an Irish toast and a bit of song. But the best way would be with a story, which is where Malachy McCourt comes in.

McCourt, 81, will spin some Irish yarns Friday at the Fredonia Opera House, starting at 7:30 p.m. Long known as one of New York City's best storytellers, he grew up with his three brothers, including Frank, the best-selling author of "Angela's Ashes," in Limerick, Ireland.

Frank McCourt, one year older than Malachy, won worldwide fame at the age of 66 for his prizewinning book. Yet it was Malachy McCourt who became famous at a much earlier age when he ran one of Manhattan's most popular Irish pubs.

Popular film and stage actors of the time, including Peter O'Toole, Richard Harris and Robert Mitchum, were regulars at Malachy's bar. And McCourt made dozens of appearances on TV talk shows hosted by Jack Paar and Merv Griffin.

"My goal was to be an actor, and I had some parts on Broadway and on TV," he said.

But McCourt's great skill was telling stories, and he was so entertaining that several backers put up the money for his bar.

"I played it to the hilt, but that wasn't really me," he said.

He refers to Frank, who died in 2009 at the age of 78, as "the scholar of the family," and it's clear the brothers enjoyed a close relationship. "Frank, my brother Alfie and I all lived on New York's west side, and would get together often," he said.

Malachy and Frank McCourt even teamed up to write a play, "A Couple of Blaguards," which they performed around the city.

"There was quite a bit about our childhood, which was dirt poor," he said. "One night we were in the middle of the play when my mother, who was visiting from Ireland and in the crowd, stood up and screamed, 'That's not the way it was at all!' Frank and I invited her onstage to give her account, but she sniffed, 'I wouldn't lower myself to join the likes of you two.'

"The crowd roared with laughter, thinking it was all part of the show," McCourt said.

After the publication of "Angela's Ashes," Malachy McCourt was approached by a publisher who offered him a $600,000 advance to write his own memoir.

He called it "A Monk Swimming," which was his childlike understanding of a passage in the "Hail Mary" prayer -- "amongst women." Though hardly in the class of his brother's books, "A Monk Swimming" also became a big best-seller. He also wrote two other engaging books.

How could Malachy McCourt miss with stories about smuggling gold overseas, or leading a group of bar patrons into Richard Harris' hotel room to catch him as he emerged naked from the shower? It was payback after the actor left McCourt in jail overnight after McCourt was arrested for swimming naked in Harris' pool after midnight.

"I've had a full life, with two wives and five children," he said. He quit drinking two decades ago and even dabbled in politics, running for governor in 2006 on the Green Party ticket.

"My slogan was: 'Don't waste your vote. Give it to me.' And I convinced 40,000 New Yorkers to do just that," he said.

Listening to him, you believe that with that brogue and gift of gab, he could charm the snakes from the ground -- as another famous Irish storyteller did many years before. Don't miss his show in Fredonia.